Behind the Byline

I build things in newsrooms that didn't exist before I got there.

At WRIC-TV in Richmond, that meant a podcast studio assembled from an empty room, a 24/7 streaming channel filled with local programming, and a digital team trained to move faster than the news cycle. Before that, it meant a daily habit of being first: our newsroom ran without a traditional assignment desk, so the digital team became one. We fielded the calls, worked the sources, and sent photographers to scenes. We were often the first to learn of a developing story.

I started at WRIC in 2022 as a Digital Producer, covering local politics, courts, business, and community development. I became the first producer at the station to pass a million page views in a single month. I was a core member of the Taking Action investigative team, where stories took months to investigate, submit FOIA requests, and long nights with court documents and spreadsheets. In 2024 I was promoted to Digital Executive Producer. I hired and trained the producers who carried our social and SEO strategy, overhauled the daily newsletter, and worked directly with our news director and general manager on what we covered and why.

During my stewardship, OTT video was the station’s top priority. Immediately following its launch, I produced and edited nearly all of WRIC's longform video podcast output, running live shows with tools like OBS and Rodecaster before cutting everything in Adobe Premiere. I clipped viral moments for TikTok and Instagram, co-hosted a weekly movie review livestream, and appeared across the station's other shows, from investigations to weather to a Thanksgiving special that aired in place of the noon broadcast. When Nexstar launched its company-wide CTV app, I was handed the station's schedule and its entire streaming library. We ended up ahead of most of the company.

My path here was not a straight line. I came to the U.S. from New Zealand in 2015 on a running scholarship to Saint Louis University, studied English, edited the student paper, and hosted a weekly radio show for four years. I spent a year in visual effects in Toronto before moving to Richmond. Four regional Edward R. Murrow Awards later, I left WRIC in March 2026 to take a break and see family back home. I'm looking for the next newsroom worth building something in.